and his loving kindnesses are beyond expressing when we were young and little, his fa therly care was over us, he preserved us, and nourished us, and caused us to grow up before him. How did he carry his lambs in his bo som, when the beasts of prey roared on every side, seeking to devour! Who can rehearse the many deliverances he hath wrought for his people, in their passage from spiritual Egypt? How hath he girded their loins with strength, and covered their heads in the day of battle! How hath he subdued their enemies before them, and put to flight the armies of aliens ! How hath he fed them with bread from hea. ven, and made them to suck honey out of the rock! Yea, he hath caused the rock to give forth water abundantly, and hath been to his people as a brook in the way, and the shadow of a mighty rock in a weary land. So that from a sensible experience we can say, to his praise, our bread hath been sure, and our wa ter hath not failed, as we have singly relied on him. Oh! his goodness is unutterable, and his faithfulness hath never failed them that have trusted in him: when have we ever been in prison for his sake, and he hath not visited and comforted us there? What sufferings have any undergone on his account, and he hath not abundantly recompensed the loss? Nay, hath he not often stopped the mouths of lions, and reproved rulers for the sake of his people; saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. In all our exercises

he hath been with us, and he hath stood by us in our sorest trials; yea, he hath caused his angel to encamp round about us, so that no weapon formed against us hath prospered; but every tongue that hath risen up against us, the Lord hath given us power to condemn blessed be his holy name, and exalted and magnified be his glorious power for ever.

These things and much more than I can write, I doubt not, but ye, my dear Friends, are witnesses of; ye especially, my elder brethren, who were called early in the morning of this day, and have stood faithful in your testimony for God until now, who from your own, both early and late experiences can set your seals to the truth hereof; and unto you

do believe this brief commemoration of the goodness and loving-kindness of the Lord to his people, will be pleasing and delightful, as I hope it may prove useful and profitable unto us all, in the stirring up of the pure mind, and putting us in fresh remembrance of the Lord's manifold favours towards us, and gracious dealings with us; which should be as a renewed engagement upon us to cleave fast unto the Lord, and in humility of heart, to walk closely with him, both that we may, as far as in us lies, answer his great loving-kindness to us-ward, and receive from him still daily strength and ability to stand, and withstand the assaults and temptations of the enemy, and escape his snares, wherewith he is, at this time, as busy and industrious to be

tray, and draw aside from the simplicity of the truth, as ever he was.

For Friends, ye know we have a restless adversary to watch against, and to war with; one that sometimes walks about, as a roar. ing lion, seeking whom he may devour, and sometimes creeps about, as a subtle serpent, seeking whom he may betray; whom, in each appearance, it is our duty and interest to resist, steadfast in the faith which over. comes. I need not recount unto you, my Friends, the many winds and floods, storms and tempests, of open and cruel persecutions, which this roaring adversary hath often raised, and caused to beat upon us, to have driven us, if possible, from off our foundation; ye cannot have forgotten it, nor that noble arm of the Lord, which was made bare for our preservation, and by preserving us against the most furious shocks, gave evidence even to the world, that we are that people whose house is founded and built upon the immoveable rock Christ Jesus. At this sort of fighting the enemy hath been foiled; which hath made him shift his hand, and like a cunning hunter spread his nets, set his snares; lay his baits, to catch the simple and unwary ones. Thus wrought this subtle enemy in the early times of christianity, sometimes stirring up the rulers, both Jews and Gentiles, to fall, with violent and bloody hands, upon the little flock of Christ; and sometimes in the intermissions of those storms, covering his hooks with the

taking baits of pleasure, profit and preferment, catch some, perhaps of those that had with stood the strongest storm of outward persecution, and made them instruments for himself to work by, to betray others. Such was Diotrephes of old, whose aspiring mind, loving and seeking pre-eminence, laboured to make a schism in the church, prating against even the elders thereof with malicious words, &c. 3 John ix. 10. What mischief the wicked one hath wrought in our day, by such ambitious spirits I need not recount; nor is it pleasing to me to remember, ye know it to your grief, as well as I. But this in all such cases is observable, that such as have made disturbances in the church, and have run into divisions and separations from Friends, have framed to themselves some specious pretence or other, as the inducement to their undertaking, which they have industriously spread abroad, and varnished over with the fairest colours they could, to allure and draw others to join with them,' &c.

This with much more to the same purpose, which might be cited, I thought meet to mention, of the mercies of the Lord to his people, and preservation of them from the beginning; well worth the reading. Then recounting the wiles and workings of the enemy, in drawing some aside from the simplicity of the truth, and stirring them up to make divisions, on one pretence or other, to disturb the peace of the church, and hinder the work of the Lord in

the earth, as lately in the separates; so now being disappointed in that, he hath formed a new design in George Keith; yet to shew the difference between the former and this, and consequently the confusion of their pretences, theirs relating to discipline, this to doctrine; they alleged that Friends were gone too much from the inward to the outward; this that Friends were gone too much from the outward to the inward, &c. (for our adversaries seldom agree in their charges.) And so he goes on to examine and compare his books published be yond sea, with those he wrote here, as to the ground of the difference and separation, which he lays at his door, manifesting his deceitful pretences, fallacies, and self-contradictions. Answering his cavils, and confuting his calumnies, that none might be deceived by him. Concluding by way of application and warning to Friends, to beware of the enemy's wiles; which I doubt not had a good effect as tó many, in preserving them out of the enemy's snare, who were in danger of being staggered by him.

When our Friend Thomas Ellwood had written this epistle, he went up to London with it, and presented it to the second-day's morning meeting, where such books and writings of Friends, as are intended for the press, use to be read and considered, and read it through in that meeting, and not one Friend, though the meeting was pretty full, shewed any disunity therewith; but approved it, and left it